Dogara makes case for companies to list on NSE

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, has said that until key players in the Nigerian economy list their businesses on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the market would not deepen and make progress.

He said this, on Wednesday, in Abuja, when he received members of the Capital Market Master Plan Implementation Council in his office.

The Speaker said the House of Representatives was willing to provide all necessary support, through legislations, incentives and any other instruments to compel all major companies in the country to list on the stock exchange.

He said that “one of the deepest issues that we have to address is that of value that is being created and completely taken away by corporations.

“In other words, in some jurisdictions, they refer to it as corporate greed; where so many companies are generating value investing in Nigeria, reaping profits, but you find out that nine people will sit and just share billions of profit. I’m not exaggerating, it is happening right now in Nigeria and I am glad you listed one of them.

“But by listing in the Nigerian Stock Exchange, it even helps in the income improvement of the ordinary citizen because they can invest in that company and whatever profits the company makes goes round and that reflects on the economy. But that is not what is happening.”

Dogara expressed happiness that the council had come up with a focus, vision and plan for reinvigorating the Nigerian stock market, and urged the council to look into tightening the regulatory powers of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to ensure that manipulators of the NSE were properly sanctioned as a deterrent to future misdeeds, and to restore investors’ confidence in the market.

Furthermore, he stressed a need for defined timelines for achieving set objectives in revamping the sector, maintaining that that was the only way to ensure that the whole process did not become another talk shop.

Earlier, the head of the Council, Mr. Olutola Mobolurin, urged the Dogara to partner with the Council to rebuild the NSE in order to grow the economy and diversify it.

He also sought legislative intervention in defining the roles of the Investment and Securities Tribunal, amendment to the law with regard to mutualisation of the NSE, legislate clearly on unclaimed dividends, crowd funding, price stability in the commodities market, Trustees Act and the housing sector through mortgage bank securities.